Madison High School in Houston is requiring parents to look more presentable on school grounds.
At one high school in Texas, parents can’t just roll out of bed in the morning to drop off their kids anymore.
James Madison High School in Houston has implemented a dress code targeted toward parents that has riled some people up.
Principal Carlotta Outley Brown wrote in a letter earlier this month to parents that they cannot enter school grounds while wearing pajamas or revealing clothing. The school is also prohibiting parents from wearing leggings, sagging pants, low-rider shorts, short dresses and low-cut tops. Women can’t wear a satin cap, hair curlers, shower cap or bonnet on their heads.
The new policy was implemented “to prepare our children and let them know daily, the appropriate attire they are supposed to wear when entering a building, going somewhere, applying for a job, or visiting someone outside of the home setting,” Outley Brown said.
The guidelines follow reports that a mother was not allowed to enroll her daughter at Madison High School because she showed up wearing a T-shirt dress and a head scarf.
However, some parents don’t agree with the new rules.
Rosemary Young was handed a copy of the new parental dress code when she wore a satin cap to pick up her son from the school. She said she was in a hurry because her younger son had broke his arm earlier.
“It doesn’t matter how a parent should come,” Young told CNN affiliate KTRK. “If we come here belligerent, out of control, things of that nature, that’s what you have the police for, but what I wear should never be an issue. I’m not revealing. I’m not doing anything. I don’t have any weapons.”
Zeph Capo, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, also thinks the school went too far.
“Having body parts exposed is one thing. Turning someone away because their hair’s in rollers … is a little ridiculous,” Capo told CNN. “This is an issue of a principal issuing a dictatorial edict rather than having substantive conversation.”
“Some of that stuff seems a little classist,” Capo added.
Houston Independent School District declined to comment. Outley Brown did not respond to request for comment.
